It’s beginning to look a lot like gift guide season! I love putting together and evolving my Philly Gift Guides each year; researching the best gifts for Philly guys always helps me to discover new places and products to fall in love with. This year, I have a fun mix of gift ideas (inspired by our city, of course) that I hope will spark some holiday shopping for the Philly man in your life!

Since I’ve moved to this city, my mind is constantly consumed with various running lists of my favorite places in Philly. Plus, my lists of “places I must try ASAP” seem to be never-ending (to the dismay of my bank account). I think these unconquerable lists always come back to the fact that there are simply so many places to fall in love with, and once you find a gem, it’s hard not to keep coming back.

Some of you may be familiar with a little local bloggers group I’m a part of called PHLBloggers. We recently participated in a fun event where each of us compiled all of the reasonswhy we love Philly, and the lists came out great! I wanted to share with you my list of current Philly favorites (plus: two bonus spots I’ve fallen in love with since our lists were published). Enjoy!

Each time I visit my parents’ home, I am asked to vacate one more thing out of my once-cherished bedroom. Truth is, I have not lived at home for four years, so I do understand the need, but with limited storage in my little city apartment, my options for what to do with these items are semi-limited. While I was home over Memorial Day Weekend, I decided to clean out the final bit of clothing in the back of my closet (which has since been 85% been taken over by my very stylish mother). It was either that, or emptying out my old pre-teen novel collection, and I was not ready for that step.

While I thought the task would be horrible, I actually finished preeeeetty pleased. I know this process can be a daunting struggle in the minds of women, so, just case you need that little push to start working on your closet, here are a few reasons why you’ll be super happy you did it.

{Before I begin . . . HI. I’m sorry. I’m back. Thanks for sticking with me. I promise to have lots & lots of good stuff for you in the coming weeks. And now, here we go.}

I am a fan of one-of-a-kind things. Flea markets and thrift shops are basically the epitome of happiness for me. Not much pleases me more than when someone asks me where I got a certain thing, and I can reply with something other than “in a hazy blur of online shopping.” As you can imagine, my pride for my unique purchases is amped up a bit when the one-of-a-kind things are made in this city. And let me tell you, ladies: we’ve got some talented people living in Philadelphia.

I don’t mind Valentine’s Day. I think it’s a nice opportunity and/or reminder to do something special for the ones you love. There are tons of gift guides for sweet, Pinterest-inspired gifts you can get for your BF (I mean, who wouldn’t want to get this?), so I’ve decided to tackle some gift ideas for the under-appreciated on the big V-Day: your BFF, your puppy, and, the most important one, yourself.Continue Reading…

I write down everything in my planner. Every. single. engagement. I use it for to-do lists. I store a lot of top secret info inside (notes I take at the doctor, passwords, measurements). It helps keep me sane and organized, and I don’t think there will ever be a time when I can fully make the switch to a paperless calendar.

The past few weeks have stressed me out majorly. Don’t worry, not for normal reasons, but because I did not yet have a 2015 planner. All of the sudden, parties were being planned, the dates for restaurant week were announced, and the blogging events came rolling in, and I did not have any way to organize what I could attend. But finally, my pretty planner is in my hands (hint: it’s one of the ones I’m about to mention below!), and I have already started filling it in. I also bought some colored pens, so I can attempt to be super organized and color code the whole book. I’m guessing I’ll have the white out out in approx. 3-4 days.

Gifting for girls in Philadelphia is so fun. For the woman who loves exploring her city, it’s hard to go wrong with a constant overflow of delightful places to go and things to do. But, in case you do need a little inspiration, I’ve got you covered. This year’s gift guide is filled with cute and quirky items for your BFF, sister, co-worker, or me. 🙂 Let’s take a peek . . .

Black Friday shopping can be amazing, if you plan correctly. As most of my life revolves around shopping, I have no problem getting up early on Friday morning to hit all the sales, but I must go with a purpose. I have admittedly never done the post-Thanksgiving shopping binge in Philadelphia, but since I’ll be back in town this weekend, I will certainly be hitting up some of the Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday sales. I’ve gathered a few of my favorite deals to help you plan and achieve shopping bliss.

Even though I have resisted putting on my *NSYNC Home For Christmas Pandora station so far this year, there’s no avoiding it – the holidays are pretty much here. My shopping has not been that productive thus far, so I was really excited to put together a little bit of inspiration in the form of my annual Philadelphia gift guides. This year I expanded my recommendations to 10 whole ideas to gift your boyfriend, brother, friend, cool boss, cooler dad, etc. for the holidays this year. Most of the items can be shopped online or picked up around town, so let’s get shopping!

I would say that, with the exception of some trips up and down Walnut Street and scouring area thrift stores, I do the vast majority of my shopping online. There is something so revolutionary about being able to limit and entire’s store selection to my size in one click. To “surprise” myself with “a gift” in the mail. To race against the 20% off coupon code expiration time to find another coupon code that you can stack on top for the best possible deal. It’s the best kind of high.

When I get asked where I get a lot of my more unique pieces, I realize a lot of my friends and family have not heard of many of these e-commerce only shops that make my world go round. to share the wealth, I thought long and hard in order to limit my absolute must-visit websites to these five gems. Behind the cut, I’ll tell you why I love each of them (sales & shipping hacks, mostly), and give you three pieces I’m loving, plus, of course, one that I already own and love.